Who is a defender

Who is a defender

“Human rights defender” is a term used to describe people who,
individually or with others, act to promote or protect human rights.
Human rights defenders are identified above all by what they do and it
is through a description of their actions (section A below) and of some
of the contexts in which they work (section B below) that the term can
best be explained. [1]The examples given of the activities of human rights defenders are not an exhaustive list.

A. What do human rights defenders do?

1. All human rights for all

To be a human rights defender, a person can act to address any human
right (or rights) on behalf of individuals or groups. Human rights
defenders seek the promotion and protection of civil and political
rights as well as the promotion, protection and realization of economic,
social and cultural rights.

Human rights defenders address any human rights concerns, which can
be as varied as, for example, summary executions, torture, arbitrary
arrest and detention, female genital mutilation, discrimination,
employment issues, forced evictions, access to health care, and toxic
waste and its impact on the environment. Defenders are active in support
of human rights as diverse as the rights to life, to food and water, to
the highest attainable standard of health, to adequate housing, to a
name and a nationality, to education, to freedom of movement and to
non-discrimination. They sometimes address the rights of categories of
persons, for example women’s rights, children’s rights, the rights of
indigenous persons, the rights of refugees and internally displaced
persons, and the rights of national, linguistic or sexual minorities.

2. Human rights everywhere

Human rights defenders are active in every part of the world: in
States that are divided by internal armed conflict as well as States
that are stable; in States that are non-democratic as well as those that
have a strong democratic practice; in States that are developing
economically as well as those that are classified as developed. They
seek to promote and protect human rights in the context of a variety of
challenges, including HIV/AIDS, development, migration, structural
adjustment policies and political transition.

3. Local, national, regional and international action

The majority of human rights defenders work at the local or national
level, supporting respect for human rights within their own communities
and countries. In such situations, their main counterparts are local
authorities charged with ensuring respect for human rights within a
province or the country as a whole. However, some defenders act at the
regional or international level. They may, for example, monitor a
regional or worldwide human rights situation and submit information to
regional or international human rights mechanisms, including the other
special rapporteurs of the United Nations Human Rights Council
and treaty bodies. [2]
Increasingly, the work of human rights defenders is mixed, with the
focus being on local and national human rights issues, but with
defenders making contact with regional and international mechanisms
which can support them in improving human rights in their countries.

4. Collecting and disseminating information on violations

Human rights defenders investigate, gather information regarding and
report on human rights violations. They may, for example, use lobbying
strategies to bring their reports to the attention of the public and of
key political and judicial officials with a view to ensuring that their
investigative work is given consideration and that human rights
violations are addressed. Most commonly, such work is conducted through
human rights organizations, which periodically publish reports on their
findings. However, information may also be gathered and reported by an
individual focusing on one specific instance of human rights abuse.

5. Supporting victims of human rights violations

A very large proportion of the activities of human rights defenders
can be characterized as acting in support of victims of human rights
violations. Investigating and reporting on violations can help end
ongoing violations, prevent their repetition and assist victims in
taking their cases to courts. Some human rights defenders provide
professional legal advice and represent victims in the judicial process.
Others provide victims with counselling and rehabilitation support.

6. Action to secure accountability and to end impunity

Many human rights defenders work to secure accountability for respect
for human rights legal standards. In its broadest sense, this might
involve lobbying authorities and advocating greater efforts by the State
to implement the international human rights obligations it has accepted
by its ratification of international treaties.

In more specific instances, the focus on accountability can lead
human rights defenders to bear witness, either in a public forum (for
example, a newspaper) or before a court or tribunal, to human rights
violations that have already occurred. In this way, defenders contribute
to securing justice on behalf of victims in specific cases of human
rights violation and to breaking patterns of impunity, thereby
preventing future violations. A significant number of defenders,
frequently through organizations established for the purpose, focus
exclusively on ending impunity for violations. The same groups of
defenders might also work to strengthen the State’s capacity to
prosecute perpetrators of violations, for example by providing human
rights training for prosecutors, judges and the police.

7. Supporting better governance and government policy

Some human rights defenders focus on encouraging a Government as a
whole to fulfill its human rights obligations, for example by
publicizing information on the Government’s record of implementation of
human rights standards and monitoring progress made. Some defenders
focus on good governance, advocating in support of democratization and
an end to corruption and the abuse of power, and providing training to a
population on how to vote and why their participation in elections is
important.

8. Contributing to the implementation of human rights treaties

Human rights defenders make a major contribution, particularly
through their organizations, to the implementation of international
human rights treaties. Many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and
intergovernmental organizations help to establish housing, health care
and sustainable income-generation projects for poor and marginalized
communities. They offer training in essential skills and provide
equipment such as computers to give communities improved access to
information.

This group merits particular attention as its members are not always
described as human rights defenders and they themselves may not use the
term “human rights” in a description of their work, focusing instead on
terms such as “health”, “housing” or “development” which reflect their
area of activity. Indeed, many of these activities in support of human
rights are described in general terms as development action. Many NGOs
and United Nations bodies fall within these categories. Their work, as
much as that of other human rights defenders, is central to respect for
and protection and achievement of human rights standards, and they need
and deserve the protection given to their activities by the Declaration
on human rights defenders.

9. Human rights education and training

Further action of significance undertaken by human rights defenders
is the provision of human rights education. In some instances, education
activities take the form of training for the application of human
rights standards in the context of a professional activity, for example
by judges, lawyers, police officers, soldiers or human rights monitors.
In other instances, education may be broader and involve teaching about
human rights in schools and universities or disseminating information on
human rights standards to the general public or to vulnerable
populations.

In summary, the gathering and dissemination of information, advocacy
and the mobilization of public opinion are often the most common tools
used by human rights defenders in their work. As outlined in this
section, however, they also provide information to empower or train
others. They actively participate in the provision of the material means
necessary to make human rights a reality – building shelter, providing
food, strengthening development, etc. They work on democratic
transformation in order to increase the participation of people in the
decision-making that shapes their lives and to strengthen good
governance. They also contribute to the improvement of social, political
and economic conditions, the reduction of social and political
tensions, the building of peace, domestically and internationally, and
the nurturing of national and international awareness of human rights.

B. Who can be a human rights defender?

There is no specific definition of who is or can be a human rights
defender. The Declaration on human rights defenders (see annex I) refers
to “individuals, groups and associations … contributing to … the
effective elimination of all violations of human rights and fundamental
freedoms of peoples and individuals” (fourth preambular paragraph).

In accordance with this broad categorization, human rights defenders
can be any person or group of persons working to promote human rights,
ranging from intergovernmental organizations based in the world’s
largest cities to individuals working within their local communities.
Defenders can be of any gender, of varying ages, from any part of the
world and from all sorts of professional or other backgrounds. In
particular, it is important to note that human rights defenders are not
only found within NGOs and intergovernmental organizations but might
also, in some instances, be government officials, civil servants or
members of the private sector.

The most obvious human rights defenders are those whose daily work
specifically involves the promotion and protection of human rights, for
example human rights monitors working with national human rights
organizations, human rights ombudsmen or human rights lawyers.

However, what is most important in characterizing a person as a human
rights defender is not the person’s title or the name of the
organization he or she works for, but rather the human rights character
of the work undertaken. It is not essential for a person to be known as a
“human rights activist” or to work for an organization that includes
“human rights” in its name in order to be a human rights defender. Many
of the staff of the United Nations serve as human rights defenders even
if their day-to-day work is described in different terms, for example as
“development”. Similarly, the national and international staff of NGOs
around the world working to address humanitarian concerns can typically
be described as human rights defenders. People educating communities on
HIV/AIDS, activists for the rights of indigenous peoples, environmental
activists and volunteers working in development are also playing a
crucial role as human rights defenders.

Many people work in a professional capacity as human rights defenders
and are paid a salary for their work. However, there are many others
who work in a professional capacity as human rights defenders but who
are volunteers and receive no remuneration. Typically, human rights
organizations have very limited funding and the work provided by these
volunteers is invaluable.

Many professional activities do not involve human rights work all of
the time but can have occasional links with human rights. For example,
lawyers working on commercial law issues may not often address human
rights concerns and cannot automatically be described as human rights
defenders. They can nevertheless act as defenders on some occasions by
working on cases through which they contribute to the promotion or
protection of human rights. Similarly, leaders of trades unions
undertake numerous tasks, many of which bear no relation to human
rights, but when they are working specifically to promote or protect the
human rights of workers they can be described as human rights
defenders. In the same way, journalists have a broad mandate to gather
information and disseminate it to a public audience through print, radio
or television media. In their general role, journalists are not human
rights defenders. However, many journalists do act as defenders, for
example when they report on human rights abuses and bear witness to acts
that they have seen. Teachers who instruct their pupils in basic
principles of human rights fulfill a similar role. Doctors and other
medical professionals who treat and rehabilitate victims of human rights
violations can also be viewed as human rights defenders in the context
of such work; and doctors have special obligations by virtue of the
Hippocratic oath.

Those who contribute to assuring justice – judges, the police,
lawyers and other key actors – often have a particular role to play and
may come under considerable pressure to make decisions that are
favourable to the State or other powerful interests, such as the leaders
of organized crime. Where these actors in the judicial process make a
special effort to ensure access to fair and impartial justice, and
thereby to guarantee the related human rights of victims, they can be
said to be acting as human rights defenders.

A similar “special effort” qualification can be applied to other
professions or forms of employment that bear no obvious relation to
human rights. The individuals who hold these jobs may sometimes choose
to conduct their work in a way that offers specific support to human
rights. For example, some architects choose to design their construction
projects in a way that takes into consideration relevant human rights,
such as the right to adequate (temporary) housing for the people who
will work on the project, or the rights of children to be consulted on
the design, if the building is of particular relevance to them.

2. Defending human rights in a non-professional context

Many people act as human rights defenders outside any professional or
employment context. For example, a student who organizes other students
to campaign for an end to torture in prisons could be described as a
human rights defender. An inhabitant of a rural community who
coordinates a demonstration by members of the community against
environmental degradation of their farmland by factory waste could also
be described as a human rights defender. A politician who takes a stand
against endemic corruption within a Government is a human rights
defender for his or her action to promote and protect good governance
and certain rights that are threatened by such corruption. Witnesses in
court cases to prosecute the perpetrators of human rights abuses, and
witnesses who provide information to international human rights bodies
or domestic courts and tribunals to help them address violations, are
also considered to be human rights defenders in the context of those
actions.

People all over the world strive for the realization of human rights
according to their circumstances and in their own way. The names of some
human rights defenders are internationally recognized, but the majority
of defenders remain unknown. Whether an individual works as a local
government official, a policeman upholding the law or an entertainer
using his or her position to highlight injustices, all can play a role
in the advancement of human rights. The key is to look at how such
people act to support human rights and, in some instances, to see
whether a “special effort” is made.

Clearly, it is impossible to catalogue the huge variety of contexts
in which human rights defenders are active. However, common to most
defenders are a commitment to helping others, a commitment to
international human rights standards, a belief in equality and in
non-discrimination, determination and, in many instances, tremendous
courage.

C. Is a minimum standard required of human rights defenders?

No “qualification” is required to be a human rights defender, and the
Declaration on human rights defenders makes clear, as explained above,
that we can all be defenders of human rights if we choose to be.
Nevertheless, the “standard” required of a human rights defender is a
complex issue, and the Declaration clearly indicates that defenders have
responsibilities as well as rights.

Accepting the universality of human rights

Human rights defenders must accept the universality of human rights as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [3]
A person cannot deny some human rights and yet claim to be a human
rights defender because he or she is an advocate for others. For
example, it would not be acceptable to defend the human rights of men
but to deny that women have equal rights.

Who is right and who is wrong – does it make a difference?

A second important issue concerns the validity of the arguments being
presented. It is not essential for a human rights defender to be
correct in his or her arguments in order to be a genuine defender. The
critical test is whether or not the person is defending a human right.
For example, a group of defenders may advocate for the right of a rural
community to own the land they have lived on and farmed for several
generations. They may conduct protests against private economic
interests that claim to own all of the land in the area. They may or may
not be correct about who owns the land. However, whether or not they
are legally correct is not relevant in determining whether they are
genuine human rights defenders. The key issue is whether or not their
concerns fall within the scope of human rights.

This is a very important issue because, in many countries, human
rights defenders are often perceived by the State, or even the public,
as being in the wrong because they are seen as supporting one side of an
argument. They are then told that they are not “real” human rights
defenders. Similarly, defenders who act in defense of the rights of
political prisoners or persons from armed opposition groups are often
described by State authorities as being supporters of such parties or
groups, simply because they defend the rights of the people concerned.

This is incorrect. Human rights defenders must be defined and
accepted according to the rights they are defending and according to
their own right to do so.

Peaceful action

Finally, the actions taken by human rights defenders must be peaceful
in order to comply with the Declaration on human rights defenders.

[1]The term “human rights defender” has been used
increasingly since the adoption of the Declaration on human rights
defenders in 1998. Until then, terms such as human rights “activist”,
“professional”, “worker” or “monitor” had been most common. The term
“human rights defender” is seen as a more relevant and useful term.